Red tea. And Believability.

"How did you know it would work?"

"I didn't."

"You pitched an idea you had no idea would work?"

"Yeah."

"And they believed in it?"

"No. They believed in me."

I'm in a backyard. 2024. Drinking red tea from a glass teapot. Like a young pinot noir. Smelling like spring. Tasting like diluted disappointment. And grass clippings.

With one of my favourite humans, discussing a recent discovery. Of an old idea. A script needing a rewrite. A picture requiring repair. And re-frame. 

The one about me having no good ideas. Or being entrepreneurial.

This is news to me. Not a raging headline. More a subtle side column you hope no one will read. A page filler with a punchline that leaves an unexpected mark. And silent bruise.

This belief has held me back. Believing the grass of good ideas is greener, everywhere but here. Until my BFF's reality check led me to dig deeper. To roots. And core.

To the fear.

Disguised as disbelief. And doubt.

The reason I hadn't started my own business prior. Why I kept waiting for someone else. To make it all ok. Because they had good ideas.

And I know how to make your good ideas, great.

But not my own.

She got me talking. About my no-good ideas and entrepreneurial experiences. One by one they started to fall from the forgotten. The place we hide ourselves from. That allow us to stay safe. And small.

She got me to remember. What I've been told every time I've pitched an out-of-the-box idea to a colleague, team, funder, board. Why strangers have consistently wanted to work and partner with me.

People believe in me.

The opening dialogue was about approaching a leading University to partner on an evaluation methodology that hadn't been attempted in WA. The Dr's team were not in favour. The Dr herself wasn't convinced. When I asked recently why she took the risk, she said simply:

"Because I believed in you."

The trial was so successful it became permanently instated in both organisations. The model is being replicated elsewhere.

A 2024 global survey identified 61% of people believe business leaders deliberately mislead, indicating a crisis in trust and the need for believable leadership.

Last week, I pitched to a CEO I'd never met. Didn't even know his last name. But I'll never forget the genuineness of the conversation. The naturalness of connection. How being with such an aligned leader made me feel.

75 minutes later. We agreed to partner on the concept. Which if successful, will change critical corporate games.

Globally.

My BFF refilled my mug with more disappointing tea. Smiling. Knowing my world had just changed.

I'd spent decades pitching other people's ideas. Believing everyone else had the good ones. That I had none. 

But in a backyard, in the northern suburbs of the planet’s most isolated city I could finally see that…

Good ideas are everywhere.

But.

Believability is exceptionally rare.

That when you show up as yourself with uncertainties, doubts, disbelief. People don't just hear your pitch.

They feel your truth.

And truth, it turns out, like connection, is not only the currency that counts.

But the only one that compounds.

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